“I was in the middle of training in my morning session, actually, and someone came and grabbed me and was like, ‘Put your mic on and call your mom,'” Chiesa told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) and USA TODAY. “I was like, ‘Oh, [expletive].’ I already knew.”

Chiesa had just fought his way into the final 16 fighters in this season’s edition of “The Ultimate Fighter: Live,” and now faced a moral dilemma. But the decision had been made for him.

Chiesa knew before he made the trip to Las Vegas earlier this month that the phone call could come any moment. The 24-year-old’s father, Mark Chiesa, was diagnosed with leukemia in June 2011, and his illness was getting progressively worse. After a scare in 2011, the family laid down a ground rule: Don’t let dad’s illness control your future.

“My dad did 100 days’ treatment over in Seattle, and when he got home, he had a little bit of an episode, and he had to go to intensive care,” said Chiesa, a resident of Spokane, Wash. “I raced to the hospital, and a lot of things were going through my head. I hadn’t even been called back for the show yet, but a lot of things were going through my head at that point, like if I was even going to consider it if they called me.

“The first thing that came out of my dad’s mouth when I showed up to the hospital – and I’m not exaggerating, it was literally the first thing that came out of his mouth – I walked in the room and sat next to him, and he said, ‘You promise me right now, when they call you back, you go. Don’t let anything going on with me hold you back. You’ve got to do this.'”

Chiesa eventually did get a call back from the producers of “TUF,” the UFC’s longtime reality competition series, and he instantly committed to making the trip to Las Vegas to film the 13-week-long series. His father had made sure of that.

“It wouldn’t even be me bringing it up,” Chiesa said. “It would be him bringing it up. He’d always remind me that you only get so long to chase your dream. Life is a fragile thing, and if the opportunity arises, you have to take it.

“It was tough for me to leave. For him, it wasn’t even a big deal. I think he kept that gameface on for me because he knew that if he started to falter and not act himself, it would have been tough for me to leave. But he held strong until I left. It was literally the day after I left that everything went downhill.”

On March 9, Chiesa earned a submission win over Johnavan Vistante to earn a spot as one of the final 16 cast members, who will live together through 13 weeks in a Las Vegas home. They’re usually kept in seclusion for the duration of the program — no television, no radio, no telephones. Just eating, sleeping, training, fighting, talking to each other and hanging around the house.

But fewer than 36 hours after Chiesa earned his spot, producers made a brief exception to the rules and allowed Chiesa to call his mother.

Chiesa’s father, age 53, had succumbed to his illness mere hours after watching his son fight on live television.

The harsh reality was featured in the second episode of the series, which airs Fridays on FX. Chiesa’s pain was evident.

“I was just really worried about my family,” Chiesa said. “When things started to go bad after I left, everyone was flocking back to Spokane. It was just tough for me to be in Las Vegas, but I knew the promise I made to my dad, and I’m not one to go back on my words, especially not one made with my dad. I never broke a promise to my dad, and I wasn’t about to do it now.

“The thing that makes it weird is I had a tough time deciding if I was going to come home because he didn’t even want my mom to call me and tell me. I could have went through this whole season and not known what had happened.”

Chiesa had to choose whether to give up his spot to care for his family. But his father’s words echoed in his head.

With UFC president Dana White’s permission, Chiesa made a quick trip back to Washington to attend his father’s funeral, but he committed to an immediate return to save his spot on the show.

“Being able to go home and get closure and be with my family really helped me,” Chiesa said. “Going home and hearing everything that people were saying was great.

“My dad, he pretty much fought his ass off. It was a lot of pain and suffering just to make to watch fight.

“My dad told me he set daily goals and weekly goals because it wasn’t for sure how long he was going to live. One of his goals was to make it long enough to see my fight. That was the last goal he achieved – it was the last one marked on his calendar. He made himself stay alive until I fought. He put himself through hell to make it to that.”

Chiesa grieved along with his family, but he was immediately ready to return to Las Vegas and continue his goal of a UFC contract.

“Going home, it wasn’t a lot of grieving like I thought it would be,” Chiesa said. “I couldn’t sleep at night, I was so motivated. After my dad’s first service, I wanted to be back in the house and get back to training. “

He believes his father is supporting him every step of the way.

“I just know that’s what he’d want me to do,” Chiesa said. “If he could say one thing to me now or one thing to me when I was there in Spokane, he would have been like, ‘Quit being a baby. Quit crying and get back in there and training. You’ve got a show to win.’ I just know for a fact that’s what he would have said.

“I know what he wants me to do, so as crude as it sounds to some people, I know my dad wants me to push this in the back of my head, not let it get me down and just push forward and train and win this show.”

Chiesa will not again speak to his family for the remainder of the series, which concludes in May. But for now, there are no regrets. He misses his father, but he knows he’s making the right decision for himself, as well as his family.

There will be no more phone calls, only fighting. Chiesa is fine with that.

“He was a supportive dad,” Chiesa said. “He attended every sporting event and watched every fight that he could. It took him a while to come around and like what I was doing. No parent likes to see their kid get beat up for a living. But he still supported me no matter what, and he fought his ass off to watch that fight. … I’m on a mission for my old man.”

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?